The top reported proficiency rate is 63% in English language arts. The lowest is 27% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on James C Neill El
James C. Neill Elementary sits on Harvest Corner Drive in Richmond, Texas, part of Fort Bend ISD and serving pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school draws from one of the fastest-growing corridors in the Houston metro, a stretch of master-planned communities pushing outward from the county's historic center. For a family buying into one of those communities, or already there, Neill is the school they are likely zoned to.
The enrollment is large for an elementary school, spread fairly evenly across grade levels from kindergarten through fifth. The student body is genuinely diverse across racial and ethnic lines, with Asian students making up the largest single group, followed by Black students, then Hispanic, then white, with smaller populations across other categories. Around a third of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a moderate share relative to many Texas schools. Data on English learner enrollment and students with IEPs was not available in what was provided.
On the Texas STAAR assessment, reading and writing results are the school's relative strength. By fifth grade, ELA proficiency reaches a strong majority of students tested, and third-grade ELA results also land above the midpoint. Math proficiency rates sit in a similar range in third and fifth grades, though fourth grade dips somewhat lower. Across all tested subjects and grades, Neill's overall proficiency index lands above the midpoint relative to districts in Fort Bend County, a meaningful position in a county that includes both high-performing suburban districts and others with more challenges. Science is where the data gives a parent most reason to ask questions: fifth-grade science proficiency is notably lower than the school's results in other subjects, clearing only a small fraction of tested students. That gap is worth raising directly with the school, since science is tested only at fifth grade in Texas and there is no earlier grade data to indicate whether it represents a pattern or a single-year result. Multi-year trend data was not available, so direction of travel across subjects cannot be assessed here.
The community itself shapes what enrolling here means. Richmond is Fort Bend County's seat, anchored by a compact historic downtown along Morton Street with local restaurants, boutiques, and government offices. But the broader residential footprint is suburban and growing fast. Developments like Harvest Green, a large master-planned "agrihood" built around a working farm, and Candela, another large planned community, have brought thousands of new families to the area. Neill's campus fits into this pattern of schools embedded in outlying residential development rather than near the historic core.
Home values in the zip code run well above the Texas statewide median and meaningfully above the national median, and both sale prices and rents have edged slightly lower year over year as of the most recent data. Affordability is relative to income, but this is not an inexpensive market. Families renting will find that rent-to-income ratios sit at a level that can strain budgets depending on household size and wages.
Fort Bend ISD context: the district is large, and publicly reported information on recent systemwide changes was not confirmed in the research conducted here, so that dimension is left out rather than guessed at.
Civic infrastructure in Richmond includes the George Memorial Library, the main branch of the county library system, and Fort Bend Transit, which provides commuter service toward the Texas Medical Center and other Houston employment hubs, a practical note for families who work inside the city but want to live further out.
Neill is a school in a growing, diverse, high-investment suburban community, with solid ELA results and a meaningful split in science that a parent should explore. The data here is one year's snapshot, and the fuller picture would come from a conversation with the school about what is driving the science gap and what supports are in place.
See more original research from School Decision →